exactly, when i did work experience at ford geelong 3.5 years ago, i was amazed at how hard they pushed all the new engines before fitting




yes, but then race engines arent designed to last for a large amount of km's...

But they are treated in the best possible way, if a hard run in was bad for the engine they would not do it. They do it becuase its the best for the life of the engine and to make the most power. Power and reliability are of great importance for race engines, a hard run in helps to ensure both. There is no reason to suggest that if its good for a race engine it would be bad for any other engine.

yeh but then id like to see a race engine do the sort of a k's a falc will!! but then again i spose its more to do with a lot other things than running in technique, so ill be quite now~

I agreee with all that every one has said re thrashing an engine.

With engines in piston aircraft, you wear them in by cruising at minimum 75% power broken up with 5 min intervals of full throttle. (And cruising in an aeroplane is completely different from cruising in a car btw)

When I got my Rover V8 engine rebuilt in my TR7 (yes I know this is a Ford forum) I found as many hills as possible, I hardly ever used 1st gear and i regularly took the engine up to 6500 RPM which is damn impressive for an unbalanced V8 designed in the 60's when the redline is supposed to be 5700RPM. I have not had ANY trouble with the engine and it doesn't burn any oil.

The guy who did the engine used to be involved in racing and in the 15 years he raced he always ran the engine in on the first lap redlining the engine and giving it a good work out. He never had any engine trouble in 15 years of doing this.

As for oils, never, ever, ever, ever, ever use normal engine oils! The whole point of running an engine in is to wear the edges off the components. Engine oils have additives that help to reduce wear. So using a normal engine oil only hinders the running in procedure because it helps prevent the running in. You can get straight mineral oils with no anti-wear additives which should be used to run in an engine.

You can use normal oils and you probably won't notice any difference.... except when the engine gets to 300,000km and is totally clapped out because it wasn't worn in correctly. An extra $30 and an extra oil change right at the beginning is a very small price to pay for double the engine life!

if you want it to last a long time and be a nanna engine. be gentle to it. if you want it to go hard. go hard from new.

Drive it hard, but not to break it, bed it in properly or will regret it.

This makes no sense because if you are comparing the same engines, the one that goes harder is obviously in better condition.

it's all based on effective engine life. an engine that goes hard from new has a tendency to feel perkier right through it's effective life than one that's been nanna'd since new. however the engine that gets driven hard will have a shorter effective life-span than the nanna engine.
so if you want to be a nanna and make it last for ever, drive like a nanna all the time. if you want to go hard then go hard but the engine just won't last quite as long.

Man, that is obvious. We are talking about what happens if you run an engine in properly. The point is if you do run it in hard, it WILL "feel perkier right through it's effective life". If you choose to nana it around after that, thats fine, but it will go harder and last longer with a hard run in. We are not saying that you should drive around all the time under high load and revs... Its just a run in procedure. Flogging an engine everyday is going to kill it quicker no mater how it has been run in.